AFAIK they have the same, or very similar, drivers in general - all the ZS adds is 7.1 (vs 6.1). No idea how they do in DOS or anything like that (I know there's supposed to be an Audigy DOS driver, but I don't know if that extends to 2, 2 ZS, etc), but for DirectSound they should be equivalent unless you want 7.1.

Alright. I'll use the standard 2, it seems to be cleaner and in overall slightly better shape.

Not after 7.1 (I don't own a single set of speakers with more than 3 parts 😉 ) and I've got an entirely separate, SB32 equipped Windows 95 machine for DOS.

Thanks for the info!

If you don't care about DOS the Audigy 2zs is probably the best all around sound card for windows 98. its what I use in my main 98 rig. I have no idea how it performs in DOS though. According to Wikipedia "The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350) improved upon the Audigy 2 by having a slightly improved signal-to-noise ratio (108 vs. 106 dB) and added built-in DTS-ES (Extended Surround) for improved DVD playback"

The Audigy 2 ZS is still good card to this day! it has vista and 7 drivers. It's not the best card but, it's still pretty decent.

Hmm, well I could just use the ZS in my XP box. 😀 Interesting. The breakout box doesn't do much I'm interested in, mainly it's just there to look good and fill space in an enclosure I don't have slot covers for.

If you're interested, the Audigy 2 can work in Dos using the Audigy12 patch available for download from here:

http://mpxplay.sourceforge.net

The patch basically enables the Audigy 2 to work with the Audigy 1 Dos drivers as the Audigy 2 never got released with Dos compatibility.

What I'd like to see is somebody make a package of easy-to-install Audigy / Audigy2 VXD drivers. So I don't have to use the CD that not only takes some time but also installs the WDM drivers by default which don't work well with EAX. Switching to VXD drivers takes more time. Ack. 😀

Actually I think the CD for the Audigy 1 installs the VXD drivers by default. The Audigy 2 CD installs the WDM drivers instead.

I agree. I dread using that Audigy 2 CD. It gets the job done but like you said it takes forever and then you have to swap drivers.

@ swaaye. Are any of these close to what your looking for? http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/pub2/C … rivers/Audigy_2

@borgie83, thanks for the link.

I found this thread as I was looking into swapping out my SB Live! for a Audigy 2 on my WinMe rig. Was sourcing drivers before I got into it.

@ anyone. Does the Audigy series help off-load cpu load more than the Live! ? I wonder if there is performance left on the table by swapping out the soundcard.

PS...Edit. also when looking for drivers I found that "Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Install CD" is erroring with 403 error on vogondrivers. I didn't have a chance to PM squallstrife though.

I believe for the Audigy 2 LE or SE the web installer from Creative in Windows 98 SE. Now that card doesn't have the real chip and does most through software but with a fast processor I doubt it makes much of a difference. The Audigy 2 needs the driver disc for Windows 98 SE but has web installer for XP.

Personally I stick with the Vortex 2 for 98 SE. For XP it depends on the period. Audigy 2, X-Fi and PCIe X-Fi Titanium are all available choices. I prefer the PCIe Titanium for XP machines.

Vortex 2 cards have been hit or miss with me and kind of picky. I mostly stick with the Monster MX300 cards and Ive had some systems where they install fine and others I get issues like instability or "needs to be in primary PCI" slot errors. When it does work though its a nice card. I keep 2 Win 98SE machines. the one I use the most runs a Nvidia 5950 Ultra and a Audigy 2 ZS but my secondary Win machine runs a voodoo 5500 and a MX300 Vortex 2 card.

There is an easy fix for the "needs to be in primary PCI"

I should document it some day...

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

@ swaaye. Are any of these close to what your looking for? http://www.gamefront.com/files/listing/pub2/C … rivers/Audigy_2

I think all of those driver updates will require the CD drivers previously installed.

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

Does the Audigy series help off-load cpu load more than the Live! ? I wonder if there is performance left on the table by swapping out the soundcard.

Audigy (1 and 2) is EAX 1-4 and 64 3D channels. Live is EAX 1-2 and 32 3D channels.

However unless the game is designed around Audigy's extra features there really isn't a practical performance difference. Live had very low CPU utilization whenever I saw it tested.

Man, installed the card and have a hell of a time with it. I cannot get the WDM driver from the cd to work. It would install but never see any device for playback or recording.

Now I see why VXD are installed. Got those in and it works now. Haven't played any games yet.

Since I had no idea how to do it i'll post how I got them in. Reading post http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/19790-Au … l=1#post3779345 for uninstalling the WDM drivers and installing VXD drivers.

Gonna qoute incase that forum goes down.

yes there are vxd drivers that work.... I think for 98 as well as 98SE. Here is problem tho. You use the vxd drivers and you wil […]
Show full quote

yes there are vxd drivers that work.... I think for 98 as well as 98SE. Here is problem tho. You use the vxd drivers and you will be in hell because your games will crash all the time. Creative doesn't support VXD drivers anymore and is no longer updating them so you will be using old drivers. I strongly recomend IMHO going to Windows XP 98 is a 16bit operating system and it's days are coming to an end fast. On XP my audigy 2 is a dream. If you can't get XP here is how to install the vxd drivers, you will need to remove the wmd drivers first: (Do this only if you feel confident that you know what your doing.)

1. put in you audigy 2 disk (istallation and application CD)

2. cancel out of the autorun menu

3. go to d:\audio\drivers

4. run ctzapxx

5. select driver unistall then wdm drivers and click OK

removal will take a while, don't reboot

6. reboot twice for good luck

7. repeat steps 1-4

8. select driver installation and vxd drivers and click OK

It will take a long time for drivers to install and look like systems is dead, but don't reboot just wait.

That should get you up and playing if it works in standard win 98 at all.

Although for me I had to use the Creative setup to uninstall everything first, then used that ctzapxx app to install the VXD drivers. From there you could run the creative cd setup again and install some of the other apps you need but do not install the WDM drivers.

Another tip would be disable the cthelper from running in the startup of the registry, It always causes problems for me.

@ Swaaye. Not that I know best but would just pulling out the audio/drivers folder from the cd and saving it as its own help. When setting up just use the ctapxx.exe for VXD installation make things faster?!

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

@ Swaaye. Not that I know best but would just pulling out the audio/drivers folder from the cd and saving it as its own help. When setting up just use the ctapxx.exe for VXD installation make things faster?!

I've never been able to get it to work. It'll install as "Audigy audio processor" instead of the correct thing.